


Story Hour

by Crowley_Is_My_Copilot



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hospitals, Kids, Terminal Illnesses, a little more on the angst side i'm sorry, i wanted it to be a bit different but this is what happened, it's just mentioned though, shirazu being a good person and brother, that's basically the whole point of this, this is kind of short sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-16
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 17:00:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6864898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowley_Is_My_Copilot/pseuds/Crowley_Is_My_Copilot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shirazu Ginshi often visits his sister, Haru, at the hospital. </p><p>She's not the only one on the children's ward and Shirazu really didn't intend to get involved with any of the other patients but that's not what happened. </p><p>[A fairly short thing about Shirazu volunteering at the hospital - it's a little light on detail because it just started as a weird head canon. Sorry about that. Enjoy.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Sorry I'm late, Haru. This investigation is taking up so much time."

There was no answer. Shirazu didn't expect one. It had been so long since his sister had been able to speak with any coherency - the best thing, the doctors said, was to keep her in a medically induced coma and he couldn't argue. The seemingly peaceful sleep was better than the pain and screams and whimpers and the lack of recognition in her eyes when she looked at him. When she _did_ see him, instead of looking through him. That had been the worst and no matter how much he missed the sound of her voice, he was glad for that temporary peace the medicine allowed. 

He pulled the chair up to the side of the bed, wincing a little at the screech the metal legs made against the tile floor and looking around to make sure it hadn't bothered anyone. ( _The room is empty besides Haru, of course it hadn't bothered anyone, why am I so stupid sometimes..._ ) Sitting down with a sigh, he folded his arms behind his head. 

"I told you that I'm squad leader now, yeah? I think I was more surprised than Urie. Still not sure what Sassan was thinkin' but I'm hoping it comes with a raise." He started to laugh but slumped, dropping his hands into his lap. "I just hope I don't screw it up."

"Hey, you want to hear how I kicked Urie's ass? 'course you do--"

 

* * *

 

He closed the door behind him, making sure it didn't slam shut, and leaned against it, staring at nothing in particular. Every week he came and every week it felt him feeling... drained? The word 'hopeless' came to mind but he didn't like that, it felt too much like giving up and as long as he was around, he wasn't going to give up on Haru. Lost in thought, he almost didn't hear the small voice that called out to him.

"Hi! Your hair is funny!" It was a boy, maybe six years old, in a wheel chair and the moment he spoke the nurse pushing shushed him, about to utter an apology but Shirazu grinned.

"Yeah? You think so?"

The boy's eyes went wide.

"Your teeth are so pointy! Are you a ghoul?"

"Nah, I'm the one that takes the ghouls out," he said, flexing for the kid's benefit. The boy seemed torn between awe and laughing.

"We should get you back to your room," the nurse said. 

"Aw, I don't wanna. It's boring in my room. I don't like being alone."

They were already moving down the hall but Shirazu gave a half-hearted wave regardless before shoving his hands in his pockets. As he passed the nurses' station one of the women lifted her head and smiled at him. 

"See you next week."

When he was out of ear short - or they assumed he was - she turned to the other woman. 

"You'll see him a lot. His sister has RC Cell disease, poor thing. Always comes in and visits with her even though she can't hear now."

"Why does he even bother?"

The automatic doors closed behind him, cutting off the nurse's answer, and Shirazu was glad for that. 


	2. Chapter 2

When he closed the door, the little boy from the week before was staring up at Shirazu. He looked around, hoping to find a nurse because he wasn't the right person to deal with a small child. An awkward smile crossed his face then left only to return with a spattering of nervous laughter all while the boy's gaze stayed locked on him.

"Hey, buddy. What'cha doing?"

"Do you want to see the puzzle I'm doing?"

"A puzzle? Well, I mean, yeah, sure," he said, surprised because he had meant to say 'no'. There were things he needed to get done, work to do, but he was following the boy anyway. 

The boy led him into a room much like Haru's. There was a hospital table wheeled over to the bed, puzzle pieces spread out across the surface. Shirazu examined the picture that was coming together - some generic scene of mountains and a lake - as the boy climbed onto the bed. 

"I have all the edges done. My mom brought it so I would have something to do. They keep saying I can go home soon but then I get sick again," he said, trying a piece only to find it didn't fit. He frowned.

"That sucks," he said not sure what else to say. It did suck and a 'sorry' wouldn't change that. He knew. "Try there." Shirazu pointed to a spot that looked like the piece might fit into. The boy tried and broke out into a smile when the piece fit. 

"Thanks!"

"Susumu-kun, are you bothering this man?"

A nurse poked her head into the room. She was someone that Shirazu recognized but her name escaped him at the moment. He waved a hand as he turned to face her. 

"Nah, he was just showing me his puzzle."

"Alright but it's time for you to get some rest," she said, pulling the blanket up to cover the boy as she guided him back onto the pillow. He pouted but didn't otherwise protest. "You can work on your puzzle later." 

"Okay! Hey, Mister Pointy Teeth, maybe you could come back and help me?"

Shirazu blinked, looking around as if he thought the boy was talking to someone else. 

"Oh. Uh. -- _maybe_?" He couldn't say no. He couldn't, not with the kid looking at him with such hope and barely contained excitement. He reminded him of Haru when she would bug him all the time to play with her. The vague feeling of regret for all the times he had said no bubbled up. There wouldn't be another chance to say yes to her and he wished there would be, more than anything else. "Sure. Next time, 'kay?"

" _ **Awesome**  _!"

The kid sounded like Shirazu had just given him a lifetime supply of candy and any thought reneging on his promise went right out the window. _Damn it. Why am I such a sucker?_ The nurse held the door open for him and waited until he was in the hallway before closing it. He followed after her as she began to walk.

"You don't have to come back, I'm sure he'll forget," she said.

"Yeah, I'm sure but I ain't the kind of guy to break promises, especially not to kids."

"You come to visit your sister, yes? There's a lot of kids on this ward that don't have people to visit them. Sometimes the parents can't bring themselves to but most of the time they have to work just to pay the bills."

"I've been there." He laughed but there was no real amusement in it. 

"If you have spare time, I'm sure some of the other kids would like someone to check in on them. There's the group room, when we do have volunteers, sometimes they read the kids stories."

"You want me to read to kids?" A pause. " **ME**? You're nuts."

The nurse laughed, giving his shoulder a pat. 

"Give it some thought. Have a nice day," she said, waving as she left him standing there.

"Yeah, _right_."


	3. Chapter 3

Shirazu had willingly under went a risky experiment that would implant a quinque inside his body, turning him into something that wasn't quite human. He had fought his fair share of ghouls, had been injured plenty of times by those same ghouls. Suffice to say, he was more than used to being in dangerous and scary situations - a lot of them brought on by rushing in head first. He'd admit to that much. But none of that held a candle to sitting in front of a group kids, all eagerly awaiting the story he was about to read to them.

The small plastic chair squeaked as he shifted, knees almost at his chest. He had considered moving to the floor but that seemed like it would be some kind of defeat so he suffered it. Looking down at the book in his lap, he flipped it open and cleared his throat and then once more, for good measure. _C'mon, get your act together man, they're kids, how tough can they be?_

He looked at the group amassed in a semi-circle around him, their full attention on him and thought, _they're going to eat me alive._  

"Right, so. Um, I gonna read this book. It's about a girl who goes camping and gets lost," he said. Two of the younger girls let out small gasps at this information. "Don't worry, she'll be fine. Look, she has her dog with her, yeah? Okay, one sunny morning Choyo woke up early. Today, her family was leaving for a special trip--"

 

* * *

 

"I liked the part with the bear!"

"That was scary!"

"Shirazu-san growls just like a real bear!"

"You'll come back next time, won't you?"

There was a weird feeling in Shirazu's chest, something he hadn't felt in awhile. It was almost like all those times he had read stories to Haru, convincing her the monster from the book was under her bed only to scare her and listen to her shrieks turn into giggles when it turned out to be just him. It was almost like that and not like it at all, both at the same time, and even though he had already visited her, he decided to pop in real quick before he left. 

A tug on his arm broke his train of thought.

"Will you come back?"

"Yeah, of course, you little brats. I gotta go now but I'll come back, don't worry about that."

He left the room as the nurses who had been supervising moved to gather up the kids and take them back to their rooms. Turning the corner he almost ran right into another nurse.

"Mori-san, sorry, I was just--" he stammered. 

"It looks like the kids had fun. I told you, you'd be good at this."

"Yeah, _yeah_ , don't rub it in. If my squad knew about this, they'd never let me live it down. Well, maybe Tooru would."

"Your secret is safe with me." 


	4. Chapter 4

The beeping of the machines was a sound he was used to. Sometimes, after visiting Haru, he'd be convinced that he could still hear them. The sound lingered. Right now, they provided a backdrop to his rambling as he told her all about the kids he read to. Not just read to, though that was the most common activity. There was more of Susumu's puzzles and board games that he always made sure to get soundly beaten at. The squad had noticed - it had been a few weeks, after all - but said nothing besides making a point to ask him how Haru was. As much as he hated the questions ( _how do you think she's doing? all that money and they can't do anything, if I had more then maybe..._ ), at least they cared. 

"Remember how I used to pretend to be the monster from the books I'd read to you? And you'd always act scared but still laughed. These kids like it, too. They like it when I growl at 'em and then they all gang up on me and 'kill' me. I banged my head on the floor the first time but I guess it was worth it."

He stopped to adjust Haru's blanket before carefully folding her hands on top and tried to ignore how small and frail they looked. At any moment, the disease could over take her and then that would be it. No more little sister. Shirazu dragged a hand over his face.  

"One of the kids wasn't there this time. I didn't ask but I knew. They always ask if I'll be coming back when it's probably gonna be them who doesn't come back one day. Maybe that's why. Anyway, today I started reading that same book that you liked--"

 

* * *

 

The door to the group room, the one the kids could play in when they were feeling better or when a sibling came to visit, the one where story hour took place each week, was closed. Susumu stood in front of the door, waiting. Five minutes passed and then ten before Nurse Mori came down the hallway, an expression on her face that the boy couldn't quite read, like she was tired or sad. 

"There you are. We were looking for you. Why aren't you in your room?"

"It's story day. Where's Shirazu-san? He should be here. He started reading a book about the hero who teams up with a princess to defeat a monster. He said we could all pick whether we wanted to be the hero or the princess and he was going to be the monster and-- What's wrong?" Susumu stopped, the noise Mori had just made confusing him. It sounded like she was going to cry but there was no reason for that.

"Susumu-kun, I'm sorry. There's no story hour today. Maybe I can get you a copy of that book and you can read it yourself?"

"No, I want Shirazu to. I want him to tell me what happens."

"I know but he's not going to be coming back, I'm very sorry."

It would have been easy to believe that Shirazu just got tired of reading silly stories to a bunch of little kids but the look on the nurse's face was the same expression that was seen on this ward all the time. Susumu knew exactly why he wouldn't be coming back to finish the story. Tears welled up in his eyes. 

"That's not fair! It's not fair! I know he pretended to be the monster but he wasn't! He was the hero and the hero doesn't die. It's not _**fair**_!"

"No, it isn't."

But then life never was fair.

Sometimes the hero died.


End file.
